The day is not far off when you can do away with the keyboard to type text on your computer. The machine will read your mind and know what you wish to type and do it automatically. At least this is the impression Facebook is giving out based on a research it is working on. The company first came out with the idea a couple of years back and their Facebook Reality Labs is involved in the research and the device they are working is a non-invasive wearable one. The device will be capable of reading the thoughts of the wearer’s mind and start typing those thoughts into text. The lab is getting assistance from researchers at the University of California, San Francisco.
The concept of this reading of the brain is being worked on the basis of how patients of epilepsy have electrodes implanted in their brains to sense the brain’s functioning and predict seizures. To begin with, the research may focus on helping people with serious brain injury that prevents them from doing any activity though their thinking faculty could be functional. Once established, the technology can then be made available for other end-uses as well.
This is how Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, Facebook vice president of AR/VR had tweeted on this development: “Today we’re sharing an update on our work to build a non-invasive wearable device that lets people type just by imagining what they want to say. Our progress shows real potential in how future inputs and interactions with AR glasses could one day look.
Today we’re sharing an update on our work to build a non-invasive wearable device that lets people type just by imagining what they want to say. Our progress shows real potential in how future inputs and interactions with AR glasses could one day look. https://t.co/ilk192GwAR
— Boz (@boztank) July 30, 2019
A caveat to be added however is that this development is still quite some time away from being successfully demonstrated. It is a concept and possibly a doable one and Facebook claims it is on the right track and will succeed.
There are other companies like Tesla — the electric vehicle maker has a startup Neuralink working on almost similar lines and may have something worthwhile to report next year.